Paul Presley

The Rub’ al-Khali, or Empty Quarter, is the world’s largest sand sea and one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet. Inspired by Wilfred Thesiger’s classic travelogue Arabian Sands, photographer George Steinmetz has travelled to the Arabian Peninsula three times during the past decade, using a motorised paraglider to capture the beauty of the shifting sands below

The Bodleian is rightly regarded as one of the most impressive libraries in the UK, so any publication of its treasures is always going to be something of a special occasion, all the more so for geographers when said treasures are from its famed ‘map room’